Madmathteacher EduBlog

Today we used the web site Similar Figures to explore similar figures and scale factor. (We used the “Similar Figure,” “Pantagraph,” and “Two Squares” links on that site.) Feel free to play around with those to continue our studies. I have also added this link to our Links tab at the top of the EduBlog. Enjoy!

I love this rap! It helps you remember how to change a mixed number to an improper fraction.
Download Video: Posted by kcollazo at TeacherTube.com.

I have noticed that many of you are still struggling with some of your multiplication facts, so I’m looking for a few ways to help you. The first step I’d like to offer is this: I found the following School House Rock videos…

“Three is a Magic Number”

“The Four-Legged Zoo”

“I Got Six”

“Lucky Seven Sampson”

“Figure Eight”

We’re almost done with our study of decimals. We’ve learned that:

1. when we compare, order, add, subtract, and divide decimals:
   • we always line up the decimal points
   • if needed, we add extra zeros after the decimal point (at the end of the number) to make the problem easier for our brains to understand
   • for division only, if there’s a decimal point in the divisor (the outside number in long division), we move that to the end to make it a whole number, and move the inside decimal the same amount.
2. when we multiply decimals:
   • the decimal points will never line up unless we have only whole numbers
   • instead of lining up decimal points, we actually multiply just like with normal whole numbers, ignoring the decimals until the end of the problem
   • remember at the very end of the problem to count decimal places - the number of places in your answer must be the same as the total number of places you counted in your factors.